Ghana imposes curfew in northeast after 20 people die in intercommunal clashes

Authorities reinforce security deployment after several days of fighting between rival groups in Bawku

Oct. 30 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ghanaian authorities have imposed a curfew and ordered a reinforced security deployment in Bawku (northeast), located near the borders with Burkina Faso and Togo, after the death of at least 20 people in intercommunal clashes.

The Ghanaian Ministry of the Interior has indicated that the decision seeks to try to control incidents in the area, shaken for several days by clashes between two rival clans that have already had several clashes in recent years.

Clashes in Bawku, located in the Upper East Region, broke out during the night of October 24 after the return to the area of ​​a rival traditional chief of the Mamprusi ethnic group who had been in exile for nearly a year due to an arrest warrant issued against him.

The annulment of the arrest warrant, issued after he was appointed to the position by one of the opposing factions, facilitated his return to the town, which caused an increase in tensions and led to fighting that has also caused the closure of schools and health centers.

In fact, dozens of young people closed the offices of the Bawku Municipal Assembly on Monday to demand that the Government resolve the situation within 24 hours, even threatening to set the building on fire, according to the Ghanaian state news agency, GNA.

During the day on Tuesday, new demonstrations and riots were recorded, including the burning of tires, to denounce the inaction of the authorities in the conflict, which would have left “more than 50 dead,” according to a witness cited by GNA, although the authorities They have not confirmed this point.

Bawku has been the scene of deadly clashes between the Mamprusi and the Kusasi, mainly over control of the area and especially since 2021. The United Nations stated in February 2023 that these conflicts are one of the main factors behind the rise of extremism in the northern Ghana.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) stated in a report that “vulnerabilities to violent extremism and radicalization in northern Ghana must be understood within the framework of broader socioeconomic and governance processes and developments in in West Africa and the Sahel.

The organization stressed that “Ghana, unlike many West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Guinea, has not experienced large-scale civil conflicts,” although it highlighted that the country is marked by “many localized conflicts that continue to threaten its peace and stability.”

In this sense, he explained that the northern regions of the African country have registered several conflicts in recent years, “including inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic disputes that were a consequence of disputes over positions of power, lands or borders and identities and resources”, a situation derived in part from the “structures created by colonial administrations and policies to exploit and deliberately generate distrust between ethnic groups”, some “underlying dynamics” that “have been aggravated by post-independence policies.”

“A key concern for radicalization and violent extremism in Ghana is inter-ethnic and chieftaincy conflicts,” he said, before explaining that, while these institutions continue to be “trusted” in the management of local affairs, they also It is the subject of “multiple conflicts that are a source of division and dispute between families and ethnic groups.”